Social/economic status and disease.

our understanding. In this review, we start with why we look at social class and touch on the issues of what social class is and its meaning. Drawing largely on data from England and Wales, we examine trends over time. We use data from England and Wales not only because they are close at hand, but, for better or worse, these nationally collected data derive from a long tradition of social class analysis. Given that in England and Wales, as in many countries, division into social class is based on occupation, it is reasonable to ask whether the relation of social class to disease is similar in the two sexes. We then examine the generality of social class findings in different cultures. Patterns of mortality from specific diseases are not always the same as mortality from all causes. The reasons for the remarkably widespread and persisting social differences in health and disease are not clear. We consider different types of explanation.